Ship Management Services News

U.S. maritime companies Crowley and SEACOR Holdings' Seabulk Tankers have created a new joint venture that combines their liquid energy and chemical transportation vessels, operations and related services into a new, independent U.S. Jones Act service provider.The new company, Fairwater Holdings, will serve the U.S. domestic market with vessels and marine transportation solutions across the petroleum and chemical trades, as well as related third-party ship management services. It will include 20 oceangoing, articulated tug-barges (ATB) and 11 tankers, many under long-term charter.

OSM Maritime Group and Thome Group have received approvals from competition authorities to merge and create one of the world's largest ship management companies.The merged company, OSM Thome, says it will be a powerhouse in the international ship management market, represented in 22 countries and headquartered in Arendal, Norway.Finn Amund Nordbye CEO of OSM Thome said: "This is a big day for OSM Thome. Our merger is now formally and finally approved. The merged company combines proud traditions with high ambitions.

Bourbon and Horizon Maritime have created a new joint venture that will offer marine services and operations in the North Sea and Canadian offshore markets.Incorporated in Norway, the new company is called Bourbon Horizon, and, according to a press release issued Thursday, it will become "a new leader in offshore operations in the harshest environments."It will be strategically positioned in Fosnavåg (Norway) and St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada), with a base fleet of "seven modern and capable offshore support vessels."The fleet includes five platform supply vessels…

Maritime communications specialist Marlink has signed an agreement to provide hybrid network connectivity services to at least 100 ships operated by shipmanager Thome Group. The contract will guarantee that the vessels are equipped with Marlink’s high speed VSAT service as well as L-band back-up to ensure flexible guaranteed bandwidth at all times. Based in Singapore, the Thome Group provides integrated ship management services, as well as offshore management, oil and gas marine services and crewing.The company has about 200 vessels under full technical management.

The Thome Group announced the opening of its new operations hub at its office in Mumbai.The new hub, which complements the one opened in November 2017 at Thome Group’s head office in Singapore, boosts fleet support using a large video wall comprising of 10 LED monitors to display different monitoring and enterprise resource planning systems simultaneously.The Mumbai hub will be operational 24/7 being equipped with state-of-the-art resources such as video conferencing, CCTV, UPS…

Ship management services provider Anglo-Eastern Ship Management has selected maritime communications provider Inmarsat to connect its crew.Anglo-Eastern, which uses Inmarsat's Fleet Xpress services, in 2019 became one of the first companies to sign up for Inmarsat’s crew internet solution, Fleet Hotspot, which, Inmarsat says, provides its seafarers "with reliable, high-speed connectivity and the  freedom to use their devices on board." According to Inmarsat, Anglo-Eastern doubled the free internet allowance for its crew in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on crew welfare.

Ship management company Fleet Management Limited (FLEET), part of the Caravel Group, said it has launched a new integrated ship management unit – MaruFleet Management Pte Ltd – in Singapore in collaboration with MMSL Pte. Ltd. (MMSL), a Singapore subsidiary of Marubeni Corporation. MaruFleet will provide dedicated ship management services to MMSL. Kishore Rajvanshy, FLEET Managing Director, said the relationship between FLEET and Marubeni began in 2014 when FLEET began to manage MMSL’s first Supramax bulk carrier, Crimson Queen.

Vallianz Holdings Limited entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Royal IHC to design and build a next generation service operation vessel (SOV) to support offshore wind farms.Designed by Royal IHC, the battery hybrid SOV will house advanced levels of integration and autonomy, designed to be ready for true zero emission operations by using full battery offshore charging system and alternative fuels for propulsion.The SOV will have a dynamic positioning system, a motion compensated gangway and crane, an elevator tower as well as a daughter craft with step-less boat landing.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) and Rawabi Vallianz Offshore Services (RVOS) on Tuesday announced a joint venture to offer third-party ship management services to the offshore sector in Saudi Arabia.The deal was announced during the  ADIPEC Exhibition in Abu Dhabi."The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s largest oil reserves and a mature extraction industry supported by an established offshore service chain. With a fleet of more than 40 offshore vessels, Rawabi Vallianz Offshore Services is one of the leading suppliers of offshore vessels within this market.

Teekay Corporation announced it has entered into a contract with the Australian Government Department of Defense to provide marine services for five Australian Government vessels for a firm period of six years, with options to extend for up to an additional 10 years. Under the contract, which is expected to commence in November 2021, Teekay will provide ship management services, including crewing and training, operating, engineering, maintenance and supply support.“This is another example of how we can generate value from the Teekay franchise and allows us to expand our asset-lite services segment,” commented Kenneth Hvid, Teekay’s president and CEO.

German shipping and logistics group Harren & Partner announced it has hired Nils Aden as managing director, effective May 1.Aden brings to the role more than two decades of know-how as a shipping industry executive in the industry, with experience from leadership positions in international ship management, transformation projects, M&A transactions and integration. In his previous assignments, he overlooked the merger of V.Ships and Norddeutsche Reederei H. Schuldt as Managing Director, led Zeaborn as CEO and transformed E.R. Schiffahrt as CEO into an international ship management player.

A tanker chartered by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is loading Venezuelan crude for export, documents from state-run PDVSA show, providing evidence of the two countries’ latest tactics to expand their trade in defiance of U.S. sanctions.Venezuela and Iran have deepened their cooperation this year as Venezuela has exchanged gold and other commodities for Iranian food, condensate and fuel.Names of scrapped vessels are being used by several PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.) customers, including NIOC, to disguise the routes and identities of the tankers they use.A very large crude carrier (VLCC), identified in PDVSA’s loading documents as the Ndros…

Singapore-base ship management firm Thome Group and German shipowner Carsten Rehder have agreed to cooperate in a joint venture to take over the ship management of the latter's owned and managed fleet of dry bulk, container and multipurpose vessels.The new company is to be called Thome Shipmanagement Germany GmbH & Co. KG with the Thome Group and Carsten Rehder as the two shareholders. The ship management staff at Carsten Rehder will be absorbed into this new joint venture.Carsten Rehder will remain independent as ship owners and commercial managers and Thome Germany will also seek to win new ship management opportunities in Europe,…

Norway-based ship management company OSM Maritime said Monday that it is nearing a deal to acquire Singapore-headquartered competitor SeaTeam Management from Frontline Ltd and Golden Ocean Group Limited.The acquisition, which is in final negotiations and remains subject to definitive documentation, is expected to be completed within the next 30 days, OSM said.“We look forward to finalizing our agreement with Frontline and Golden Ocean, after engaging in a very constructive dialogue,” said Tommy Olofsen, chair of OSM Maritime.

Norwegian offshore vessel owner and manager GC Rieber Shipping has signed an agreement to transfer its fleet management services business to OSM Maritime Group, and become a pure shipowner.Under the agreement, GC Rieber Shipping will transfer all technical, crewing, and support functions in Bergen to OSM.OSM will establish a new ship management company within the offshore segment in Bergen, who will be owned 100% by OSM and be located together with OSM Bergen.GC Rieber Shipping currently has 6 vessels under management in Bergen, including vessels under third party management.

Wilhelmsen Ship Management, a provider of third-party ship management services headquartered in Singapore, and the Hamburg-based asset and investment manager MPC Capital AG have agreed to combine their activities in the technical management of containerships. To this end, Wilhelmsen Ship Management acquires a 50% stake in Ahrenkiel Steamship GmbH & Co KG, the technical containership manager within the MPC Capital Group.The joint venture will operate under the brand Wilhelmsen Ahrenkiel Ship Management.

The world’s largest container tonnage provider has become the latest vessel owner to benefit from classification society DNV GL’s remote audit capabilities, as the impact of the global COVID-19 crisis continues to spur the increased use of remote survey services globally.Under a Hong Kong flag special authorization, DNV GL, together with representatives from Seaspan Corporation, carried out a remote Document of Compliance (DoC) audit of the company’s Safety Management System (SMS).According to DNV GL, the Hong Kong flag administration gave the classification society the go-ahead to perform the Seaspan DoC audit on behalf of Hong Kong flag after having become familiar with its process and capabilities from a series of remote audits completed in recent months.“With more than 18…

Houston-based Excelerate Energy’s unit, Excelerate Technical Management (ETM) has been authorized to operate as ship manager for its parent company’s entire fleet of floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs).The Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Government of Belgium have awarded Interim Documents of Compliance (DoC) under the International Safety Management (ISM) Code to ETM.The Interim DoC is the result of an audit of ETM’s safety management system, confirming compliance with ISM standards which ensure the safe operation of its crew and vessels.“Excelerate has achieved a company milestone with the successful launch of our ship management services. The Compliance certification is tangible evidence of the forward-thinking, dedicated effort of our team.

Hong Kong-headquartered containership lessor Seaspan Corporation has closed its previously announced purchase of a fleet of six containerships.According to a press note from the independent charter owner and operator of container-ships with ship management services, its global fleet now approaches one million TEU, with a total fleet size of approximately 975,000 TEU.Bing Chen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seaspan, commented, "With the acquisition of the six high-quality containerships and approaching 1 million TEU, Seaspan has continued executing on its growth strategy through disciplined capital allocation. Leveraging our strong balance sheet and trusted customer partnerships…

The Greek oceangoing vessel operator Capital Ship Management Corp. (CSMC) took successful delivery of the newbuilding vessel M/T ‘Aitolos’.The 115,000 dwt, eco-type crude oil tanker is built by Daehan Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, S.Korea, said a press note from the ship management services provider.M/T ‘Aitolos’ is the first of two sister ships to be delivered in 2020.Capital Group currently operates a fleet of 78 vessels including 48 tankers (10 VLCCs, 4 Suezmaxes, 7 Aframaxes, 26 MR/Handy product tankers and 1 small tanker), 5 modern bulk carriers, 18 container carriers and 7 LNG Carriers with a total dwt of 8.5 million tons approx.The fleet under management includes vessels of Nasdaq-listed Capital Product Partners L.P. and NYSE-listed Diamond S Shipping Inc.

Norwegian ocean research organization REV Ocean has appointed V.Ships Leisure as ship management partner for the world’s largest research and expedition vessel.V.Ships Leisure, part of V.Group, will provide a tailored suite of ship management services for the new vessel, which is scheduled for completion in 2021. The ship will be equipped for conducting research that covering the whole of the marine ecosystem using advanced technology developed by Norwegian knowledge clusters…

The Greek seaborne shipping and logistics company Navios Maritime Holdings sold its ship management division and certain general partnership interests to N Shipmanagement Acquisition Corp. (NSAC), affiliated with company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Angeliki Frangou.The provider of transport and transshipment of drybulk commodities received aggregate consideration of $20.0 million (including assumption of liabilities) and new five-year service agreements under which NSAC will provide technical and commercial management services at fixed rates and administrative services, reimbursed at allocable cost.As a result of the transaction…

Liberty Global Logistics LLC (LGL) announced today that Robert G. (Bob) Wellner, its current President, will retire effective December 31, 2019. Mr. Wellner is a widely respected industry veteran with more than 46 years of experience in the U.S.-flag shipping and logistics industry and was a key player in the formation and growth of LGL.Mr. Wellner joined forces with Philip J. Shapiro in 2003 which led to the formation of LGL. LGL commenced operations in 2004. Mr. Shapiro had previously formed Liberty Maritime Corporation in 1988…